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Film: Love Me If You Dare
Release date: 29th May 2008
Certificate: 15
Running time: 94 mins
Director: Yann Samuell
Starring: Guillaume Canet, Marion Cotillard, Thibault Verhaeghe, Joséphine Lebas-Joly, Emmanuelle Grönvold
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: France/Belgium
The directorial debut of French screen writer Yann Samuel that famously bought together two of France’s biggest screen stars of today, Love Me If You Dare could’ve set sail towards the dangerous territory of tabloid fodder. However, with its bold originality and somewhat brutal heart, the film is worlds away from being just another love story.
Boisterous yet imaginative Julien is unable to cope with his mother’s terminal illness, whilst distraught outsider Sophie can’t cope with endless taunts about her heritage. As children on the school bus tease Sophie and throw her books in the street, Julien offers her a small tin box shaped like a carousel.
A prized possession gifted to him by his mother, Julien regrets his moment of kindness, and asks if Sophie will return it soon. Sophie is heartbroken, and demands Julien to prove how much he wants the carousel with a goading dare.
With the absent bus driver picking up Sophie’s tattered books, Julien seizes the moment and takes the break off the bus causing it – along with the school bullies aboard – to roll down the hill. Thus begins the game that will alter their lives.
With only Sophie and Julien playing their game of dares, the world is their oyster. Like a child of divorced parents, the custody of the box alternates between the pair after one dare is completed. What begins as playful and childish – swearing at teachers, urinating in front of the principle – soon metamorphoses in to acts of humiliation and hurt as they mature. As their love for one another increases alongside their escalating dares, the distinction between the game and real life is blurred. Who will dare to quit the game - and will they dare to admit their true feelings…
Love Me If You Dare is the type of romantic comedy that is rare in mainstream cinema because it has dark elements surrounding it.
The main characters are not the typical blonde-haired blue-eyed boy/girl that hail from dynastical families of great wealth, and neither are they churning out fluffy dialogue, with the occasional “I love you” thrown in for good measure. Both Sophie and Julien are unlikable characters that commit horrible acts, yet, as an audience, we invest so much emotionally into their story because we’ve seen just how far they are willing to go for one another.
As children they retreat into a world of fantasy where life is just a game, but when it is time to grow up and face life, it is our narrator Julien that finds this impossible to accept. For Sophie, he is willing to fulfil any dare she desires him to do and vice versa. However, the toughest dare of all is for Sophie and Julien to love one another.
Yann Samuel has crafted such an array of complex characters that even supporting roles - notably Julien’s father, played by Gerard Watkins, whose portrayal of a man losing wife and dealing with single fatherhood is heartbreaking and infuriating to watch – could have propelled the script to being a potential ensemble piece similarly to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie.
Much has been said about the film’s comparisons with Amelie (there’s even a shared Facebook page for fans of both films). On the surface, it is easy to see why critics are so quick to make this assumption. Both films have strong aesthetic tastes, predominantly towards a colour scheme of green and red, that have inspired American television to adapt a similar strong chrome style (Pushing Daisies and, to a certain extent, Ugly Betty). Even Love Me If You Dare’s narrator as a child adopts a penchant for listing his likes and dislikes a la Amelie, possibly as homage.
Unlike Amelie, Love Me If You Dare showcases the cruelty and complexities of love. What began as all fun and games is now target practise to see who can hurt the other most. The painful fragility masked with a bitter nonchalance experienced by Sophie and Julien is exquisitely illustrated by Marion Cotillard and Guillame Canet. Like a silent film actress, Cotillard uses her eyes to reveal the soul of Sophie in contrast to the arrogant swagger that Canet affects to reveal Julien as a boy pretending to be a man.
Set to a soundtrack consisting of a single song, one would think it would become irritating after a while. However, when the song in question is ‘La Vie En Rose’, the result is nothing short of magical. Using versions by artists such as Donna Summer, Louis Armstrong and French chanteuse Edith Piaf (ironically, Cotillard went on to win an Oscar for portraying the singer), the soundtrack becomes a melting pot of varying cultures and eras united by the theme of love.
In a sense, Julien and Sophie’s game of dares was once La Vie En Rose, translated as life through rose coloured glasses. This is particularly poignant during the film’s alternating endings that let the audience decide the central character’s fates. Whilst this tool is becoming popular throughout modern cinema to satisfy all audience’s tastes, Samuel strongly suggests with the opening shots of the film which ending he would most like viewers to walk away with.
Viewers expecting a ‘boy meets girl and they fall happily in love’ scenario will be disappointed but shouldn’t shy away from viewing Love Me If You Dare. Its quirky take on childhood sweethearts and forbidden love laced with black humour is a refreshing departure from the hoards of formulaic romantic comedies that have graced the box office. SRI
Film: Eloise
Release date: 5th April 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Jesus Garay
Starring: Leo Casamitjana, Felipe Arago, Diana Gomez, Laura Conejero
Genre: Drama/Romance
Studio: TLA
Format: DVD
Country: Spain
A coming of age drama from director Jesus Garay, following a teenager’s exploration of friendship and love, Eloise proves to be a film that simultaneously conforms and shatters the stereotypes of its genre.
Whilst many are mistaken that the film centres upon the title character of Eloise, the main focus of the picture lies with 18-year-old Asia. The film’s plot details the story of her life which unravels via flashbacks of dark visions interspersed with pleasant memories, as she lies comatose in hospital. Watching her daughter, Asia’s shell-shocked mother demands to know the whereabouts of “her.” As Asia’s boyfriend expresses little knowledge of the mystery woman dismissed as “no-one,” it is clear that she could play a key role in the reason for Asia’s condition.
As time is reversed, we are shown that Asia is an artistic, kind and popular student. She appears to lead a life most ordinary, dividing her time between her friends, studies and controlling mother.
After meeting her future boyfriend, Nathaniel, Asia immediately sets herself apart from her loud and flamboyant friends with her shyness and sensitivity to the prejudice held against fellow student, Eloise. Curious about an advertisement for an art student seeking a model, Asia applies - unbeknownst that Eloise is the artist. Despite the tolerance displayed earlier, Asia expresses reluctance to pose for an openly gay woman but is won over by Eloise’s no nonsense attitude.
As Nathaniel and Asia drift apart, with every art lesson and heart-to-heart she gravitates further towards Eloise. Asia begins confronting her own feelings for Eloise after a weekend together; inadvertently causing Asia’s mother to attempt to literally put her daughter on the straight and narrow by intervening between the star-crossed lovers…
What is surprising about Eloise is the direction Garay takes a film that is a seemingly typical romantic drama by providing a sense of foreboding and darkness contrasting against the happiness of two people falling in love. The overall visual tone of the film is split in to two parts to distinguish flashbacks from scenes of Asia hospitalised, providing us as an audience with a helpful aid in the midst of numerous jolts through time.
Though the ending of the film may come as a surprise to most mainstream audiences, those familiar with films featuring the LGBT community will notice a cliché that has become trite in their on-screen portrayals. Deterring from Hollywood’s perpetual need for a ‘happy ending’ and to solve all character’s problems within a film’s two hour run, Garay let’s the audience choose their own ending depending on the type of person they are - not dissimilar from the glass half empty/half full test.
This can be, depending on an individual’s taste, infuriating or enlightening, as scriptwriter Cristina Moncunill’s natural dialogue combined with the chemistry between Gomez and Cabrol has the viewer heavily invested in the characters. Gomez, especially, has a difficult task of playing a main character experiencing a great amount of conflict that is likeable despite her infidelity. Her portrayal of Asia as someone who welcomes an unexpected love but feels guilt over the consequences is refreshing, with her quiet dignity also tinged with moments of feistiness.
There were moments within the film where the ol’ heart strings were tugged and the feeling that at any moment a violin would appear was a looming prospect. But it is Ariadna Carbrol’s performance that so often saved the day, with Eloise’s ease within her own skin and captivating presence. Cabrol brings credibility to the typical quirky art student that could have been in danger of seeming pretentious. Instead, Eloise, as a character, is charming and gutsy despite the generalisation that all artistic souls wear doc martins and grim reaper robes. Both actresses possess uncanny resemblances to Penelope Cruz and Scarlett Johansson, which was probably intentional to draw comparisons with the infamous Vicky Cristina Barcelona kiss. But the treatment of a same-sex couple within the film is at times outdated, especially as it is set in main city Barcelona and Spanish law has had more progress with gay rights than the UK.
What is surprising is how the film tackles both prejudice and infidelity in a manner that isn’t condescending or preaching to viewers. The film’s soundtrack, although setting the tone off to a good start, quickly became grating with the excessive use of whimsical flute’s song to illustrate the couple’s blossoming romance. Although this does not prevent one from enjoying the film, at times it does sound like it belongs to a made-for-TV movie.
It’s clear that in different hands, Eloise could have been a cure for insomniacs and in danger of becoming a, dare I say it, ‘chick flick’. But it is the combination of cast and director which proves gold in terms of deviating from the usual romance genre yet managing to still tick all of its boxes. A coming of age and romantic drama with an air of independence. SRI
Film: Sergei Eisenstein Vol One: Silent Classics
Release date: 12th July 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 255 mins
Director: Sergei M. Eisenstein
Starring: Aleksandr Antonov, Vladimir Barsky, Maksim Shtraukh, Grigori Aleksandrov, Mikhail Gomorov
Genre: Drama/History/War
Studio: Palisades Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: Soviet Union
Innovative Soviet Russian film theorist and director Sergei Eisenstein’s first volume of films arrived on shelves this summer presenting both his early and most famous silent works. Containing his first feature film Strike (1924), piece de resistance Battleship Potemkin (1925) and the epic October: Ten Days That Shook The World, it is easy to see why he is so revered. Cinema with a political streak, Sergei Eisenstein Vol One manages to capture the essence of Pre-World War II Russia and the spirit of revolution that runs through its veins.
Strike
Silhouettes of workers and machinery glide across the screen as we witness their daily routine. Set in Russia during tsarist rule, “discontent is spreading,” and we are greeted with the stereotypical suited and booted manager puffing on a fat cigar. He has brought in spies and double agents to survey workers as tensions arise.
When a respected and friendly worker commits suicide after being accused of theft, news spreads leading to the workforce going on strike.
Family time is relished as well as morning lie-ins. The factory is still and quiet; the manager, with no productive employees is losing money yet still refuses to meet the strikers’ demands.
As the strike drags on longer than expected, families go hungry and pressure mounts on both the employees and managers. Loyalties are betrayed and violence ensues as the managers attempt to bring the strike to a halt by any means necessary…
The first feature film from the father of montage, Strike provides a glimpse of the visionary master’s early experimentation with his trademark aesthetic. Opening with an epigraph by Lenin, the film’s central themes of class, strength in numbers and how at the heart of unity, organisation is the glue holding the elements of strength, are practically forced upon viewers.
It is interesting to view Eisenstein’s theories of film in their primitive forms within Strike. In a literary style expected of great authors, Eisenstein’s eloquent way of speaking to an audience through metaphors comparing humans and animals (and, to a certain extent, vice versa) presses further emphasis upon the worker’s lack of control over their own lives. The most extreme sequences displaying these contrasts involves animal slaughter to replace the film’s final scenes of violence; whilst experimental even in contemporary cinema, it can seem a little pretentious to some viewers who feel put off by films that strive to be too artistic.
Whilst necessary to reveal the characters that populate Strike, scenes including superimposition can be distracting, as well as migraine inducing due to the length of time they appear.
The main downfall of Strike is that some scenes appear extremely out of place or contrived. For example, during a scene of interrogation, two people are dancing on a table in the background, which although one could delve further and say it is representative of the question-answer process, it was just too abstract and unnecessary for a scene that needs no elaboration. Like an author who uses flowery prose excessively, Eisenstein decorates Strike with metaphors and quick cut-away scenes that sometimes dampen the film’s true message and story.
An ensemble piece, Strike focuses upon the masses as opposed to individual characters. Similarly to Battleship Potemkin, also featured in Essential Eisenstein Vol 1, innocents (mostly children) being caught up in the violent mix are depicted yet in fleeting moments; a stark contrast to the lingering scenes upon the Odessa steps in Battleship Potemkin in which a mother’s distress is seen alongside the images of her child in danger. It is a stark reminder from Eisenstein that future generations are the ones who suffer most in times of strife, yet, hauntingly, they too will grow and fill a place in society which, depending on their ancestor’s actions, could start the ball rolling all over again.
Battleship Potemkin
Like the other features in the box set, Battleship Potemkin opens with an epigraph by communist leader Joseph Stalin about revolution being the only justifiable war, the film’s rebellious undertones and convictions of equality are immediately embedded from the get go.
The film, based on the true story of the mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin, is partitioned within five episodes similar to the plot structure of Japanese Kabuki theatre favoured by Eisenstein.
Beginning with ‘Men And Maggots’, we are introduced to sailors Matyushenko and Valkulinchuk as they complain to their fellow seamen of the poor working conditions the group suffer. With cramped sleeping quarters and abuse inflicted upon the sailors day by day, cabin fever sets in, and the ends of tethers are reached as they’re served rotten meat crawling with maggots. Disgusted with their less then basic living conditions, some of the sailors attempt to change their working conditions and refuse to eat their meals.
Progressing to the next phase of the film, Drama At The Harbour, the injustice against the sailors takes a sinister turn as the commanding officers threaten their fates. Realising their free-thinking could lead to death, the sailors attempt to escape but are soon captured and prepared to be shot via a firing squad consisting of their fellow colleagues. As tensions mount, questions of morality and conscience is soon added to the potent mix with the ship’s priest crying out to bring “the unruly to reason.” But who is the unruly: the sailors following their orders or the rebellious crew creating chaos in the name of equality?
With the Potemkin under mutineer control, during the next phase, A Dead Man Calls for Justice, they sail to dock at Odessa with their revolutionary figure laid to rest at the port. Potemkin is becoming the subject of outrage and shock on dry land as word spreads of the sailors’ plight. Saddened by the death of the man “killed for a plate of soup,” and with their fists clenched, they vow to “never forget…”
Hailed as the most influential propaganda film ever made, the legend and hype surrounding Battleship Potemkin can be intimidating upon the eve of your first viewing. But director Sergei Eisenstein’s magnum opus delivers and lives up and far beyond the critical acclaim surrounding it.
Whilst the film is based upon the events aboard the Potemkin in 1905, legend has it that Eisenstein’s portrayal of a fictional confrontation on the Odessa steps was so embedded in the hearts and minds of movie-goers that many believed it had actually happened.
Being a raconteur, Eisenstein strays from the era’s standard cinematic vision and manages to hone his skilled use of montage seen in other features (Strike, October) to heighten the tensions of the viewer, and emphasise the horror of the events unfolding. Close up shots of distressed children and even violence against them - whilst shocking during the film’s original release - still continue to outrage contemporary audiences who are desensitised by the extreme violence displayed in modern news media. When the Odessa rally together to bring food and supplies aboard the Potemkin, what ensues is possibly one of the most traumatic depictions of violence on-screen.
Artists such as Francis Bacon have sighted Battleship Potemkin and Eisenstein’s visual aesthetic as inspirations within their own work, and it is easy to see why. Each frame shot by Eisenstein is a visual feast that nourishes the mind’s emotional investment in the characters of the film, from the nameless crowd members to courageous sailor Valkulinchuk. The aim of the film is to garner sympathy for the sailors and their fight through not only personally introducing us to the sailors’ ambassador-like figure (Valkulinchuk), but also ingraining the central message by using Lenin’s words at the beginning of the film.
Eisenstein’s montages depicting the masses is a crown bejewelled with sparkling moments as the dust settles - only for this to be disturbed and gears changed to quick cut-away and repetitive shots to further elevate our own sympathy towards both the crowd and the sailors. The contrast of the sweeping and panning montages captures the true chaos and power of a crowd that produces feelings of claustrophobia, as well as a close bond towards the nameless faces we have come to recognise.
In a way, events that shaped the noughties, such as the war on terror and the conflicts arising in the middle east over the Taliban’s restriction of human rights, contain themes, dilemmas and strife that make the film’s core values applicable to even today’s world issues, whatever an individual’s beliefs.
October
Commissioned to honour the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution in Russia, Eisenstein’s October is a detailed war film of epic proportions that is shot in chronological real time depicting the events of 1917.
Eisenstein’s trademark crowd scenes and montages once again make an appearance in a film that to those who perhaps haven’t had a chance to brush up on their knowledge of Lenin and Trotsky (whose portrayal was edited down last minute) will be confusing.
The film Illustrates the poverty and troubles experienced by the working class as well as delving deep in to the political turmoil surrounding them…
Chaos reigns supreme in October which plays up the director’s greatest strength of depicting the masses and the strength that can be acquired within large numbers - a force that manages to over turn the political leaders they feel stunted by.
Being a film that historians will adore, one would expect that it would to say the least be historically accurate. It is in fact the inaccuracy of events (such as the embellished Winter Palace storming) that is most revealing about the film’s intentions. With an introduction explaining that many of those who partook in the October Revolution are seen in the film, a great amount of pride concerning the overturning of a government radiates from the screen and it is clear that like most propaganda films, the views and opinions expressed are extremely biased. It is Sergei Eisenstein’s artistic genius that keeps the film afloat and shines through until the very last second.
Cinematic ground is broken and new feats created when Eisenstein utilises his technique of ‘intellectual montage’, in which the events taking place on film are interspersed with clips of unrelated objects to encourage comparisons between them. By using iconic images of different religions, such as Christ, Buddha, Hindu deities and even imagery relating to Aztec beliefs, Eisenstein exercises a then controversial opinion that all religions share the same essence only to then compare fundamentalism with patriotism.
A man who was forced to denounce his own work publically, it is a testament to Eisenstein’s strength and dedication to his art that he continued to produce experimental and surreal aspects in his films. And after watching October, it is clear that if Eisenstein had listened to his critics, it would have been a great disservice to cinematic history to have altered his creations.
Although the films featured in Sergei Eisenstein Vol 1 are familiar to fans of the pioneering director, the box set is a welcome introduction to Eisenstein for those who have only heard of him through the worldwide success of Battleship Potemkin. With its picture perfect visuals and rebellious spirit, this is a wonderful trio of films that should be the top of the ‘must watch’ list of those who are passionate about film. SRI
Film: La Vie En Rose
Release date: 13th October 2008
Certificate: 12
Running time: 135 mins
Director: Olivier Dahan
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve
Genre: Biography/Drama
Studio: Icon
Format: DVD
Country: France/UK/Czech Republic
A film that earned foreign cinema its first (eagerly awaited) Oscar win for a performance since Sophia Loren in La Ciociara (1961), La Vie En Rose has always been something of a talking point amongst fans of French cinema. A difficult subject to tackle, and one that is close to France’s hearts.
A rags-to-riches biopic about the turbulent life of Edith Piaf (Marion Cotillard), the film possesses a non-linear narrative in which we, the audience, experience Piaf’s life through her memories. The majority of these are primarily focused upon her lonely childhood (young Edith played by Pauline Burlet), in which she is abandoned by her busking mother and her soldier-turned-acrobat father who leaves the young girl in the care of his mother - she just so happens to own a brothel.
Whilst this isn’t the perfect place to raise a child, Edith is adopted by the courtesans, particularly Titine (Emmanuelle Seigner), who dotes upon her as if they really were mother and child. However, at possibly the most stable time of her life, Edith and her new extended family are torn apart in one of the most heart wrenching scenes of the film.
Now helping her father within the exciting atmosphere of the circus, Edith’s life is altered further as the pair are left homeless. A blessing in disguise, this is the vital catalyst of the film in which a young Edith soon realises the power of her voice.
Years later, at the age of 18, and accompanied by new friend, Simone, Piaf is still singing in the streets for money, leading to a chance encounter with club owner Louis Leplee that alters the course of her life forever…
Dahan’s film is layered with subtle parallels throughout, as Edith grows into someone eerily similar to the people who have abandoned her on more than one occasion. The fact that her parents are both themselves performers (or “artistes,” as her mother prefers to be called) only increases the comparisons further. When Edith finally gains the professional success she craves, we’re left to wonder whether her personality will evolve positively or descend within the egotism so often portrayed in celebrity biopics. In a way, her success is her own brand of revenge against those who have wronged her as well; a sort of karma.
Edith, at heart, is a good person but Dahan is just as revealing about Piaf’s flaws as he is her triumphs. Marion Cotillard’s acting is simply flawless throughout, with her Academy Award win being well-earned and deserved, whilst the supporting cast of Sylvie Testud as Simone and Emmanuelle Seigner playing Titine form the strong pillars alongside the lead role.
With the soundtrack consisting of Piaf’s own original recordings (with only a couple of minor exceptions to portray the singer’s frailty), the film is sure to please die-hard fans as well as gaining fresh ears in the process. With so many biographical films predominantly targeting clued-in listeners, it is refreshing to see that Dahan hasn’t neglected to remember that mainstream audiences outside of France may not have directly heard of Piaf herself, but will no doubt know her most famous hit, ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ (‘No Regrets’).
Whilst La Vie En Rose is largely a positive viewing experience, the moving back and fourth between time periods can make the film, at times, hard to follow, with the scenes concerning Piaf’s daughter seemingly cut and pasted in by the director towards the end.
It becomes impossible to fathom that one person has lived through and experienced such hardship and troubles – had this been pure fiction, it would have seemed hyperbolic and unbelievable. The very fact that Piaf’s life, and the woman herself was so mercurial makes the film even more inspiring, considering the obstacles she overcame and her ever present love of life until the end. Edith Piaf was truly a woman who had no regrets.
Abandonment, poverty, stardom and romance are explored alongside loss and loneliness throughout as the film is littered with moments of poignancy, sadness and joy that will have you laughing one moment and reaching for the tissues the next. With its stunning soundtrack and strong cast, La Vie En Rose is a film that should and will never go by unnoticed. SRI
